ASTM International Board of Directors

2014-2016 Director

Nabil A.A. Molla is secretary general of GSO, the Standardization Organization of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for the Arab States of the Gulf, which works to coordinate standards and conformity assessment by the member nations, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Molla’s career in standards began after his work as a lecturer in the College of Science at King Saud University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1974. After receiving a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Denver in 1978, Molla served at the Saudi Organization for Standards, Metrology and Quality (SASO) as a chemist, director of chemical industries, director of standards, director general for standards, deputy director general, director general, secretary general of the Award of King Abdul Aziz for Quality, and governor of SASO, before he was appointed GSO secretary general by the GSO Council in 2012.

Molla has been involved with ASTM since 1987. He has supervised memorandums of understanding between SASO and other groups, and he participates in economic bilateral committees with other countries such as Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. He has participated in preparing regulations and laws relating to standards, conformity assessment, accreditation, consumer protection, and food and drug administration guidelines.

A past chairman of the Saudi Accreditation Committee of the Commission on Developing Future Strategy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for 2020 and past vice chairman of the SASO board of directors, Molla has also served on the GSO Technical Board and was a member of the Council of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority and the Saudi building code group. He has represented the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as an Eisenhower fellow (1994), a program designed to provide professional enrichment, leadership development and networking for leaders internationally.

Molla serves as general director of the GCC Accreditation Center (GAC) and is a member of the American Society for Quality, AOAC International, the Consumer Protection Association, GCC Ministerial Committee for Food Safety and the Saudi Chemical Society.